The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation has developed a new one-stop shop service for water and environmental assessments and approvals.
WA Minister for Water, Dave Kelly, and WA Minister for Environment, Stephen Dawson, launched the new service which is now live and available through the department’s website.
Project applicants that require environmental and water approvals can now engage with the department through a single contact point supported by a new internal coordination framework that will save time and improve the service for applicants.
The creation of the new one-stop shop service is consistent with the government’s Public Sector Reform, which is designed to improve customer access to government services and overall response times.
The department’s improvements to online service delivery demonstrate how agencies can contribute to and support the government’s drive for digital transformation across the public sector.
In July 2017, the departments of Water and Environmental Regulation, and the Office of the Environmental Protection Authority amalgamated to become the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation.
“To drive economic growth in WA, we need to make it easier for the public and industry to do business with government departments,” Mr Kelly said.
“That is why we amalgamated the various departments in July 2017 and are now improving the approvals process to deliver a better customer experience.
“Previously industry would have had to approach potentially three different agencies (Department of Water, Department of Environmental Regulation and the Office of the Environmental Protection Authority) to ascertain what environmental approvals they would require for their project.
“But now with this new online one-stop shop, all the information they require is at their fingertips.”
Mr Dawson said the new webpage will be welcomed by industry and stakeholders as a better way to do business.
“As a government, we are committed to simplifying what can often be complex government processes without compromising on our environmental rigour,” Mr Dawson said.
“Many project assessments previously required proponents to bounce from one door to another, causing frustration with the process.”
